Chantal Goya unrecognizable as a youngster: her forgotten photos

Pandi-Panda, A rabbit, Bécassine… Since the 1970s, singer Chantal Goya has made millions of children dance and sing in France and French-speaking countries. A childish joie de vivre that contrasts with her youth, she who claims to have lived an austere childhood. “I was born in Saigon and I spent my early childhood in Vietnam, in a family of doctors and architects”, she had declared to our colleagues from Figaro in 2022 and to add: “Never music or cinema, it did not exist”.

A televised career which is all by chance, she who has never had “a career plan, nor been ambitious. I have always believed in encounters and incredible opportunities”, she explained to our colleagues. The one who wanted to become a journalist fell into music by chance. “I wanted to ask for a column in the new newspaper launched by Filipacchi, Miss tender age, but he found me too photogenic for that. So he produced me”. A meeting which was decisive for Chantal Goya who made the acquaintance in the wake of the author-composer Jean-Jacques Debout.

The latter would have said to him: “You will marry me, we will have two children and you will be famous at 30. All this happened”. The latter passed the ring on February 25, 1966 and subsequently had two children: Jean-Paul, in 1966 and Clarisse, in 1968.

A multi-generational singer who assumes her status as a children’s idol. “I’ve always been like that: I’ve never been afraid of what people will say. And I also have a lot of vitality and energy,” she told Le Figaro.

Planet invites you to discover the most beautiful photos of Chantal Goya in her early days.